Uru - beyond Myst demo

Just finished the Uru demo. Graphics are very good but not photorealistic like Myst 3 Exile. Needs a reaonable Video card to run at maximum quality. Anyway, there's more interaction with characters now that a true 3D engine has been adopted. Sound quality as always is impressive and really immersive with my Creative Inspire speakers.

I did have trouble with the movement though. It takes a bit of getting used to with mouse keyboard combination. Took me a bit of fiddling around to rotate the character around and walk her across a narrow bridge in 3rd person - this definitely needs improvement. Something new is the ability to customize a high polygon character from head to toe. Created the hottest looking chic - tombraider has met her match Which reminds me, this is the first of the Myst series to had 3rd person view as default. In first person the game is very similar to RealMyst. Jumping and strafing are nice but I notice the character can't jump and grab on to ledges, can't roll or crawl etc. There's potential for significant improvement in this area.

Unfortunately I hate the story line - what storyline? The objective seems quite pointless - find 7 images to advance to the next world...period. Kinda like a tourist treasure hunt. All the Myst series had a more sensible goal to work towards and problems tended to be interlinked - not to forget that background storylines were based on actual novels in print. Uru puzzles seem easiest of the series and the worlds seem more disjointed. For example, the reason for lowering a bucket in the demo level was to be able to view one of the 7 images on a hidden side. That's it ! There's no other point to it. The image can't be used to solve any other problem. You'll get a better understanding of what I mean when you try out the demo. Leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction after solving the problem.

Myst 3 was better in terms of photorealisic immersion - an experience I've personally never seen replicated in any other game. In Uru, first person view loses some detail. Also, you have to point to exact spots with your mouse to activate objects. For example my mouse never came into contact with the active zone on a switch so nothing happened when I clicked. This is probably because objects are smaller than in the other Myst titles. This can be a real time waster since you have solved the puzzle but failed to click the right spot and go right past it.

The good thing is, unlike the previous Myst titles, if you get stuck on a problem you can ask hints from characters. This is a vast improvement. I can remember sitting for ages unable to solve a problem in previous titles then having to surf the net or buy the hints book (never done this yet) to move on. This innovation speeds up gameplay and makes it more smooth flowing. Two thumbs up.

The 109MB demo at 3dgamers.com is well worth the download and reasonably sized.

Yeah, it is definitely not Myst III, but you have to understand that Uru was intended purely as an experiment - when they were developing it, they knew that some people would like it, others would not. The primary purpose was to attempt a web driven game, with updates and interactivity and whatnot - its just luck that there was enough to constitute a single player, offline experience.

Myst IV started development (conceptual design, at least) right after Myst III was released, and as everyone who bought that particular installment of the series knows, ubi did two or three surveys to see where players stood on new ideas for the game... Uru started construction then, and it will be released as the result of their surveys (more or less).

its not too bad, per se, but as you said, Coathanger007, its no Myst III. Hopefully Uru will be an isolated experience, and Myst IV will follow the trend of Myst, Riven, and Myst III